Wilkinson barred from UNC

Raleigh, N. C, Thursday Morning, March 3, 1966
Wilkinson Barred From UNC
By PERRY YOUNG
CHAPEL HILL�Controversial Frank Wilkinson was turned away from a University of North Carolina auditorium by a campus security officer Wednesday night.
Earlier in the day Acting Chancellor J. Carlyle Sitterson had barred Wilkinson from speaking on the campus in the first test of new Speaker Ban regulations.
UNC student body president Paul Dickson III said a court suit would be filed by him and other students in an attempt to have the State's Speaker Ban Law declared unconstitutional.
More than 350 students and faculty members gathered out-
side the locked doors of Carroll Hall around 7:30 p.m. and watched campus security chief Arthur Beaumont enforce the chancellor's decision.
Wilkinson arrived at the hall accompanied by Dickson, who confronted Chief Beaumont and said, "Do I understand that we are not to use this building?"
Beaumont replied, "As I understand it, he (Wilkinson) can't speak on campus."
The group walked three blocks to Hillel House, an off-campus Jewish Student Center, to hear Wilkinson speak.
Acting Chancellor Sitterson announced his decision to bar Wilkinson after a student invitation which brought him to Chapel Hill had been considered
by a student-faculty committee. The committee was set up in accordance with Speaker Ban rules approved on Monday by the Consolidated University trustees.
Sitterson said he took the comiT'ittee's advice, but that "the decision is entirely my own."
He said University President William C. Friday concurred in his decision to prohibit a speech on the canpus by Wilkinson.
The new Speaker Ban regulations, an outgrowth of an amendment adopted last November by the General Assembly, give the chancellors of the four UNC branches the responsibility of deciding whether Commur.isU or Fifth Amend-
ment pleaders shall be allowed to speak on their campuses.
Wilkinson, who is chairman of a committee which advocates abolishment of the House Un-American Activities Committee, pleaded the First Amendment in a congressional investigation and the Fifth Amendment during a state committee probe in California.
Sitterson issued a statement in which he pointed out that the executive committee of the Consolidated University trustees had, on Feb. 7, cancelled appearances by Wilkinson and Communist theoretician Herbert Aptheker, scheduled for this month at Chapel Hill.
"Consequently," Sitterson said, "even though prior to the
executive committee action I recommended the earlier invitations should be approved, I regard the executive committee's action as in effect binding in these two instances, and I do not at this time think I should grant permission for the use of University facilities for Mr. Wilkinson on March 2."
Sitterson's decision included denial of a request by Dickson, chairman of the Students for Free Inquiry, that he be allowed to invite Wilkinson to a campus auditorium to sit while a speech written by Wilkinson was read or delivered by tape recording.
See UNC, Page Two
UNC
Continued from Page One
.'Dickson was armed with a tape recorder as he confronted Chief Beaumont on the steps at Carroll Hall. After being told that Wilkinson couldn't speak in the building, Dickson asked Beaumont if he could play a recording of Wilkinson speaking.
Beaumont indicated this could be done on the steps, but not inside the building.
Dickson turned to the gathering of students and faculty members and said, "I find this particularly depressing. I believe we have a constitutional right to hear this man. ... It i$ an important right which in the past this unversity has been able to hold."
Shouts Questions
Dickson shouted questions to the group:
"How many of you would like to hear this man? How many could go to another place if we have to?"
The students shouted back "we shouldn't have to go," and "speak here."
James McCorkel, former president of the Students for a Democratic Society which first invited Wilkinson to the campus, introduced him for his talk at the Jewish Student Center.
-"The outcome of today's happenings is going to be a court case," McCorkel said. "It will certainly be backed by the Civil Liberties Union and we hope that Mr. Wilkinson will soon be able to speak here and on the campus."
"He has himself agreed to be a party in a court case . . . to testify to his right to speak, and I am sure many of you wiH be willing to testify as to your right to hear."
The students responded with loud appluase.
Speaks from Sidewalk
Wilkinson delivered a 10-min-ute speech on Franklin Street in Chapel Hill Wednesday morning.
He spoke from the sidewalk across a stone wail to some 1,200 UNC students who stood on the University campus.
A large sign stretched out along the wall bore this message: "Gov. Dan K. Moore's (Chapel Hill) Wall."
Wilkinson told the students, "I believe the situation in which we find ourselves here assembled is an indignity to this great university."
The Chapel Hill campus, he said, was the "first place where I've been banned from stating what I would like to state." He said UNC was the 132nd campus on which he had been invited to speak.
He expressed the hope that "out of this effort we will be able to restore academic freedom to this university and to this State."
His remarks drew applause from the students several times.
The mood around the student government offices was anything but glum after Acting Chancellor Sitterson announced the Wilkinson ban decision.
Student body president Dickson rubbed his hands together, smiled and yelled, "Man, we've got'em now."
There were telephone calls to two lawyers who, among others, have been informally advising the students on a possible court suit challenging the Speaker Ban Law's constitutionality. The lawyers are McNeill Smith of Greensoro and Professor William Van Alstyne of Duke University.
Dickson said the costs of a court fight would be met "through contributions from students and faculty."
There are no funds at present, he said. "We'll have to start gathering money."

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Raleigh, N. C, Thursday Morning, March 3, 1966
Wilkinson Barred From UNC
By PERRY YOUNG
CHAPEL HILL�Controversial Frank Wilkinson was turned away from a University of North Carolina auditorium by a campus security officer Wednesday night.
Earlier in the day Acting Chancellor J. Carlyle Sitterson had barred Wilkinson from speaking on the campus in the first test of new Speaker Ban regulations.
UNC student body president Paul Dickson III said a court suit would be filed by him and other students in an attempt to have the State's Speaker Ban Law declared unconstitutional.
More than 350 students and faculty members gathered out-
side the locked doors of Carroll Hall around 7:30 p.m. and watched campus security chief Arthur Beaumont enforce the chancellor's decision.
Wilkinson arrived at the hall accompanied by Dickson, who confronted Chief Beaumont and said, "Do I understand that we are not to use this building?"
Beaumont replied, "As I understand it, he (Wilkinson) can't speak on campus."
The group walked three blocks to Hillel House, an off-campus Jewish Student Center, to hear Wilkinson speak.
Acting Chancellor Sitterson announced his decision to bar Wilkinson after a student invitation which brought him to Chapel Hill had been considered
by a student-faculty committee. The committee was set up in accordance with Speaker Ban rules approved on Monday by the Consolidated University trustees.
Sitterson said he took the comiT'ittee's advice, but that "the decision is entirely my own."
He said University President William C. Friday concurred in his decision to prohibit a speech on the canpus by Wilkinson.
The new Speaker Ban regulations, an outgrowth of an amendment adopted last November by the General Assembly, give the chancellors of the four UNC branches the responsibility of deciding whether Commur.isU or Fifth Amend-
ment pleaders shall be allowed to speak on their campuses.
Wilkinson, who is chairman of a committee which advocates abolishment of the House Un-American Activities Committee, pleaded the First Amendment in a congressional investigation and the Fifth Amendment during a state committee probe in California.
Sitterson issued a statement in which he pointed out that the executive committee of the Consolidated University trustees had, on Feb. 7, cancelled appearances by Wilkinson and Communist theoretician Herbert Aptheker, scheduled for this month at Chapel Hill.
"Consequently," Sitterson said, "even though prior to the
executive committee action I recommended the earlier invitations should be approved, I regard the executive committee's action as in effect binding in these two instances, and I do not at this time think I should grant permission for the use of University facilities for Mr. Wilkinson on March 2."
Sitterson's decision included denial of a request by Dickson, chairman of the Students for Free Inquiry, that he be allowed to invite Wilkinson to a campus auditorium to sit while a speech written by Wilkinson was read or delivered by tape recording.
See UNC, Page Two
UNC
Continued from Page One
.'Dickson was armed with a tape recorder as he confronted Chief Beaumont on the steps at Carroll Hall. After being told that Wilkinson couldn't speak in the building, Dickson asked Beaumont if he could play a recording of Wilkinson speaking.
Beaumont indicated this could be done on the steps, but not inside the building.
Dickson turned to the gathering of students and faculty members and said, "I find this particularly depressing. I believe we have a constitutional right to hear this man. ... It i$ an important right which in the past this unversity has been able to hold."
Shouts Questions
Dickson shouted questions to the group:
"How many of you would like to hear this man? How many could go to another place if we have to?"
The students shouted back "we shouldn't have to go," and "speak here."
James McCorkel, former president of the Students for a Democratic Society which first invited Wilkinson to the campus, introduced him for his talk at the Jewish Student Center.
-"The outcome of today's happenings is going to be a court case," McCorkel said. "It will certainly be backed by the Civil Liberties Union and we hope that Mr. Wilkinson will soon be able to speak here and on the campus."
"He has himself agreed to be a party in a court case . . . to testify to his right to speak, and I am sure many of you wiH be willing to testify as to your right to hear."
The students responded with loud appluase.
Speaks from Sidewalk
Wilkinson delivered a 10-min-ute speech on Franklin Street in Chapel Hill Wednesday morning.
He spoke from the sidewalk across a stone wail to some 1,200 UNC students who stood on the University campus.
A large sign stretched out along the wall bore this message: "Gov. Dan K. Moore's (Chapel Hill) Wall."
Wilkinson told the students, "I believe the situation in which we find ourselves here assembled is an indignity to this great university."
The Chapel Hill campus, he said, was the "first place where I've been banned from stating what I would like to state." He said UNC was the 132nd campus on which he had been invited to speak.
He expressed the hope that "out of this effort we will be able to restore academic freedom to this university and to this State."
His remarks drew applause from the students several times.
The mood around the student government offices was anything but glum after Acting Chancellor Sitterson announced the Wilkinson ban decision.
Student body president Dickson rubbed his hands together, smiled and yelled, "Man, we've got'em now."
There were telephone calls to two lawyers who, among others, have been informally advising the students on a possible court suit challenging the Speaker Ban Law's constitutionality. The lawyers are McNeill Smith of Greensoro and Professor William Van Alstyne of Duke University.
Dickson said the costs of a court fight would be met "through contributions from students and faculty."
There are no funds at present, he said. "We'll have to start gathering money."